Hot-wire vacuum meter



May 1, 1928. 1,668,106

A W. D-RLLENBACH HOT VIIRE VACIJUII IIEI'I'ER Filed May 12. 1924 Jl.lilzelndbotllu Patented May 1, 1928.

UNITED STA ES PATENT OFFICE..

WAIt'I'EB DILLEIEI'BACE, OI' ZUBICE, SWITZERLAND, ASSIGNOIR: 'IO AK'I'IIENESEIILL- SCEA IFT BILOWN' BOVERI & OIE., OF BADEN', SWITZERLAND.

HOT-WIRIE VACIJ'UM MISTER..

Application illed Lay` 12, 1924, Serial No. 712,912, and in Germany July 26, 1923.

It is well known that high Vaclla can ho measured With great accuracy h v means of 8. hot wire, because the heat-comluctivity of highly rurciied gases diminishcin propul'- ti tion to their degree of rurefaction. That is to say, that if a conductr through which a constant electric current is flowing and which is therehy hcated by the said current, is placed in a Vacuum that is to be nreasured,

to the amount of heat which the .said Conductor gives offto its surroundings in a unit of time, will diminish proportionally to the increased degree Of Vacuum. and therefore the Conductor will become hotter as the Vacuum increases: If now a conductor having the highest possible temperature-coetficient of its resistance be employed, then the variation in its resistance in dependence upon the Vacuum can be accurately measured.

Consequently a permanently connected indicatin instrument can be calibrated directly or use as a Vacuum-meter.

The foregoing is true however only on the assumption that the temperature of the 26 surroundings is exactly constant, which is ppla'actically never the case. Recourse might had to the expedient of enclosing the hot wire -vacuum-meter in a thermostat, which although possible in the laboratory, is not 80 practicable for making industrial measuremaats.

Accordin to the present invention the effect of t 8 surrounding temperature is compensated in a simple manner by measur- 85 ing the variation in the resistance of' the hot: wire by the Wheatstone bridge method, the arms of the bridge being made of a material havin approximately equal temperature coetiic1ents, and being exposed equally to 40 the influence of the surrounding temperature.

A Practical form of this Vacuum-meter is illustrated b(y way of example in the accompanying iagrammatic drawings in 46 which Figure l illustrates an apparatus colllprisin two hot wires.

e apparatas for measuring the Vacuum is Of the Wheatstone type and comprises four resistor elements, a, b, c, (1, constituting the arms of the bridge. One set of two o posite resistor arms 12, C, are disposed in t s interior of a herrnetically closed vessel e which is connected through a pips 'I) with us the space, the vacuum of which is to be determined. The. other pair of resislor arms b, d, are disposed exteriorly of -said vessel and ure independent. (DE the Vncutun conditions in the interior thurcof. source of supply f is connected between onc set of dingonally opposite corncrs of the resistor qunlrilateral, while a measuring instrmucnt g is connected to the other set of corners. The current flowing through the resistor arms heats the resistor wires tr, 0, in the interior of the vessel. and by comparing the variations of the resistance of said wires with the exterior resistor elements I), (1, the vacuum condition in the interior of the vessel may readily he determined. By usng two hot wires (t and 6, that are disposed to the atmosphere that is to be ganged, as mutually opposite arms Of the bridge, a high degree of accuracy is obtained. According to the invention, the hot wires are enclosed in two-H-sha ed connected cross tubes e, lt, and the ratio arms b and (I are fixed between the ends of these cross tubes.

As all four resistances of the bridge should have e nal temperature coeilicients, and are expose to the same room temperature, the measuring arrangement is completely compensated for, and insensitive to, fluctuations Of the latter, and the indicating instrument 9 can be calibrated directly as a vacuum-meter and be furnished with a corresponding scale.

The illustrated apparatuses are merely examples Of construction. The invention covers constructional exampleswhich may be entirely different in execution.

In theory, the temperature coefficient of the hot wires situated in the vacuum should be somewhat different from the temperature coetlicient of the bridge arms that are situated in air. This difference is however so slight that it can be neglected in practice.

What I claim is:-

1. In a. hot wire vacuum-meter, the com hination of a vacuum vessel of i't-shape, having 8. limb in line with the cross bar of thu H for connection to the Vacuum challllor whereof tho Vacuum is to be measured. leadin terminals on the two end pairs of said vacuum vessel, and a Wlleatstone bridge. having all its arms composed of conducting material of approximately the same resistance temperature coetlicient, whereof the two mutual] opposite arms of the bridge quadrilateral bonstitate two hot wires located Ill inside the legs of said H-shaped vacuum vessel, and the two other arms of said Wheatstone bridge are located between the said terminals outside said vacuum vessel.

2. In a high-Vacuum instrument responsive to the conditions of an evacuated space, 8. hermetically closed vessel, and a ipe extending from said vessel for connection with the evacuated space, said vessel having two pairs of protruding terminal portionsfour resistor terminals serially-connected tu each other to constitute arms of'the l-Vheatstone bridge, one pair of elements constituting two opposite arms of the bridge being spanned between said protruding portions in the interior of said vessel, the other pair of elements constituting the two other opposite arms of the bridge being spanned between said protruding portions outside said vessel.

3. In a high-Vacuum instrument comprising two sets of resistor elements, one of said sets being exposed to an evacuated atmosphere that is to be gauged, tle other of said sets being maintained .independent of said atmosphere, and means actuated by the relative variation of the resistance of Said two sets, a holder constituting a unitary support for said resistor elements comprising a hermetic vessel, a tube extending from said vessel for connection with the space that is to be gauged, and a plurality of insulated lead-in terminals extending through the walls of the vessel, the set of resistor elements that is to be exposed to the atmosphere that is to be gauged being directly held between said terminals in the interior of the vessel, the external set of resistor elements being directly held by said terminals on the exterior of said vessel.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification.

WALTER DLLENBACII. 

